Word Origin & History

separate late 14c., from L. separatus, pp. of separare "to pull apart," from se- "apart" (see secret) + parare "make ready, prepare" (see pare). Sever (q.v.) is a doublet, via French. The adj. meaning "detached, kept apart" is first recorded c.1600, from the pp. used as an adjective. Separate but equal in ref. to U.S. segregation policies on railroads is attested from 1890. Separate development, official name of apartheid in South Africa, is from 1955.

Example Sentences for separateness

But in some districts there were clearly defined lines of separateness.

This is His separateness, in which we are to be made like Him.

Even the rocks and the stones are seen as parts of the Whole and we no longer feel a sense of separateness from any thing.

His mind naturally dwelt upon the principle of separateness.

It is in this that the Separateness and Exaltation of God, even above all thought of man, really consists.

With the separateness that let them complement each other to form the whole.

He will have to justify his spiritual isolation or separateness.

Rhythm was simply ease, as separateness, due to want of rhythm, was dis-ease.

Each city was in the hands of a few or a few hundred men, to whom its separateness meant everything that was worth having in life.

They carried the pharisaic demand for separateness to the extreme of asceticism.